Martin Kaste
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
In addition to criminal justice reporting, Kaste has contributed to NPR News coverage of major world events, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2011 uprising in Libya.
Kaste has reported on the government's warrant-less wiretapping practices as well as the data collection and analysis that go on behind the scenes in social media and other new media. His privacy reporting was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 United States v. Jones ruling concerning GPS tracking.
Before moving to the West Coast, Kaste spent five years as NPR's reporter in South America. He covered the drug wars in Colombia, the financial meltdown in Argentina, the rise of Brazilian president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and the fall of Haiti's president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Throughout this assignment, Kaste covered the overthrow of five presidents in five years.
Prior to joining NPR in 2000, Kaste was a political reporter for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul for seven years.
Kaste is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
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One executive order President Trump signed this week aims to expand legal protections for police accused of misconduct, seeking to establish pro bono legal assistance from private sector attorneys. -
Unreliable federal gang data and a heavy reliance on tattoos and clothing styles can skew the picture of this Venezuelan gang's operations in America. -
NPR examines the ICE campaign against the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. How real and how extensive is the gang's presence in the U.S.? Are the Trump administration's claims even verifiable?
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The federal government has added hundreds of thousands of immigration arrest warrants to a national database used by local police, meaning cops are more likely to know if someone is wanted by ICE.
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Federal agents have been filmed wearing masks while making arrests in public. When is it legal for police and the public to conceal their faces in an age of digital facial recognition and doxxing? -
Some local police are eagerly signing up to help ICE, but others are shying away, worried about the legal risks. NPR compares two neighboring counties on New York's Long Island. -
In the flurry of first-day executive orders, President Trump revoked a 2022 police accountability package, including a system to flag misconduct. -
The DOJ's lawsuit against Chicago's sanctuary laws is the most visible effort to force local police to help with immigration enforcement. But the more serious pressure is coming from states.
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Trump's border czar Tom Homan is urging more local law enforcement agencies to support ICE's immigration efforts. -
In the LA fire zones, law enforcement is promising to crack down on looting, fraud and other crimes. Some residents have hired security or are staying in their houses to watch the neighborhood.
